A Moment of Consideration
by Tearra
Summary: This story just wouldn't die. Stuck up in a tree in the past, this is their first night from Connor's point of view. Spoilers for Series 3, and for the finale.
1. Abby

She loves him.

Of course she loves him. Maybe she had loved him from the first time that he had awkwardly stumbled into her life. Maybe it had always been there, lurking beneath the surface, hiding with all of the other things that she rarely let see the light. She would probably never really know how long she had loved him, but that didn't matter, all she knew was this:

She loves him.

"Think of your happy place," she whispers, closing her eyes. She knows that he is aching and that he is terrified, but he doesn't let it show. And, as usual, he does what she asks of him.

Maybe that was one of the many reasons that she loves him.

"...a nice sandy beach...."

"Are you there?" he asks without opening her eyes and a piece of her icy heart melts, as it usually does when she's around him. She opens one of her eyes to watch him. He looks so content. Not like he's fifty feet up in the air, stuck millions of years in the past, hiding from raptors and God knows what else.

"If you'd like," she whispers. He smiles. She closes her eye.

Unbidden, he pops into her own beachy vision, a stark contrast against the bright sky and sand. He's smiling, that half smile, eyes closed against the gentle sea breeze. He's so beautiful in his own strange, unique kind of way.

In the real world-what is real anymore, she wonders-a smirk splashes across his face.

"Are you wearing a bikini?"

She swallows any sort of sarcastic remark that might try to make it's way out and opens an eye again to study him. He looks so peaceful. She remembers the shock of fear coursing through her when she saw him laying there at the base of the tree. When he wouldn't wake up. When she realized that she would rather risk her lie and die than see him die. The tribulation of watching him swing the branch in a wide arc, connecting with that damn raptor.

She thought that she was going to lose him and that thought had been unbearable.

"If you'd like."

The small smile gracing his features clearly says: _I'd like._

Some part of her wants to crawl over to him and ask him to hold her because she knows that he will. That same part wants to kiss him and ask him to tell her that everything is going to be alright, but she can't. That stubborn Abby part of her that she hasn't managed to control, the part of her that's terrified to let Connor in, won't let her.

Instead she closes her eyes. Forces herself to be calm.

"See you in the morning," she whispers, wondering if her words are true at all.

Something screeches in the distance, maybe a teradactyl, maybe a raptor.

He's thinking the same thing.

"I hope."

* * *

That night she dreams of Stephen.

Stephen was different than Connor. Stephen was never anything more than fling material. He didn't threaten her solitude the way that Connor did. Stephen was manly and sexy ad aloof and totally unattainable and maybe thats why she lusted after him so. But that's all it had ever been-lust.

So much different than Connor.

In her dream, Stephen replaced Connor on her beach.

"Hey Abby," he said.

"Hey," she said. "You're dead."

He nodded and looked out into the ocean. "I know."

"What you did," she said, words spilling from her lips. "With Helen. To Cutter."

_It was wrong, _went unspoken.

"I know," he whispered.

She wants to ask why, but she's not sure that she wants to know the answer.

She touches his shoulder. "He forgave you, you know. Cutter."

"I know," Stephen says. "That's why I did what I did. Because he forgave me for something that he never should have forgiven me for."

Vaguely Abby remembers that she's dreaming and wonders how she could possibly know any of this.

"I'm sorry,"he whispers, but she's not sure why he's apologizing to her.

She turns her head away from him and when he turns back, he's gone.

* * *

Cutter replaces Stephen on her beach.

She wants to cry and hug him, but instead she just chokes out his name. He's sitting on the sand, legs pulled up to his chest. His eyes are clearer than she remembers them being in a long time.

He pats the sand beside him and she sits in the same position as him, slightly curled up, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

"So you love him." It's not a question. "Connor."

She nods, slowly. "Yeah, I think I do." Words tumble from her mouth, maybe it's because it's a dream, she's being more honest than she ever though possible, or maybe it's because it's Cutter. "I kissed him, you know."

Cutter nods. "And?"

"And I liked it. I love him. And it's not the right time. Cutter, we're stuck in the past and Connor's hurt and I don't know what to do."

He smiles. "You alwasu were the strong one, Abby." He turns his calm, piercingly blue eyes at her. "Everything will be fine. And there's never a 'right' time for love. Just different opportunities."

"Opportunities?" she whispers.

"Don't wait too long," Cutter says turning his eyes out to the ocean again. "That's how I lost Claudia. And then Jenny."

There are unexpected tears pricking at Abby's eyes.

"I miss you so much, Cutter," she whispers.

He puts an arm around her shoulders and squeezes. "I know."

"And so does Connor. He doesn't say it, but he doesn't have to."

"I know," Cutter says again, and there's something like regret tinging his voice. "I know."

She closes her eyes and when she opens them again, he's gone and she misses him even more.

* * *

"You too?" she hisses, feeling mutinous. They're standing in the future, looking for her brother, looking for her Jack, and they all want to go home. He's her only family. He's all she has. Why don't they understand that she can't stop?

"Abby..." he whispers, something like hurt flashing through his dark eyes.

"You never liked him!" she screams. "You'd be glad if he was dead!"

She knows in an instant that shes hurt him and she doesn't care. He needs to stop this silly charade. He needs to get as far away from her as possible.

But she can't look at him.

And then the Predator, appearing from no where. No where to run.

Jack...

"Hey!"

Her head snaps back to the entrance of the room that they had emerged from. Connor is standing there, a strange look on his face. With a shock, she realizes that she recognizes that look. It was the same dead look that his face wore after Cutter died. After he came walking out of that building with Cutter in his arms.

"Hey!" Connor yells again. "Over here!"

He waves at the Predator. Distracting it.

"Go on," he says to her, that sad dead look in his eyes.

For a moment she wants to say something, but she doesn't. She watches as the Predator rushes at him. At Connor. Her Connor; and for a moment she can't breathe because all of a sudden she realizes what is happening. What he's doing.

For her.

* * *

Maybe that was when she realized that she loved him.

* * *

She's alone on her beach. Not even Connor is there anymore and suddenly, with every fiber of her being, she wants to wake up and she wants to be back in her own time, in the flat with Connor, laughing with Danny and Becker and Sarah, and she remembers dancing with Connor in the strange compound when they were running from Christine's troops and she remembers how he looked in the tux and tails and how happy he seemed and it's not fair and she wants it all back, now.

* * *

When she wakes up, she's still in the tree and her cheeks are damp. She's shivering a little bit and when she looks over at Connor, she sees that his chest is rising and falling slowly.

And, despite it all, if there ever had to be someone stuck in this bloody situation with her, she's glad that it's him.

"I love you Connor," she whispers into the darkness.

She's sure he's still asleep, she's sure that he can't hear her, but something like a vague smile spreads across his face anyway.


	2. Connor

He loves her.

But of course he loves her, he has probably loved her since the moment he laid eyes on her. Since the first witty remark came out of her mouth. Since the first time that she saved his life or that he saved hers. She made him feel like he wanted to be a better person. She made him feel complete. Whole.

He loves her.

His body hurts. He's in better shape than when he first joined the team, but falling from a tree still does it's damage. He winces as he struggles to get more comfortable in the tree that they've decided to spend in the night in.

He hopes Danny is okay.

He hopes Sarah and Becker aren't worry too much. (Of course they are, you fool.)

He hopes Helen Cutter is dead.

"...think of your happy place..."

He opens his eyes and studies Abby for a moment. His Abby. Hurt and terrified (not that she would ever admit it), and trying to comfort him. His heart swells then aches for a moment and he wants to do nothing more then to close the gap between them and hug her because he's terrified and the touch of her skin has always managed to calm his nerves.

"A nice, sandy beach."

Connor always has loved the beach. Even though he burns bright red, and there's lots of sand and it's hot, there's some deep buried, happy memory of the beach that he can't quite place but that always makes him smile a little. Even fifty feet up in a tree, millions of years in the past.

"Are you there?" Wondering if he's crossing a line but in the end not caring.

There's a smile in her voice. "If you'd like."

"Are you wearing a bikini?" He's probably going to get hit for it., but the words slip past his lips before he even realizes what he's saying.

There's laughter in her voice this time, soft and hesitant.

"If you'd like."

His beach is bright and sandy white, the sun is beating hotly down on him, but it's okay-he won't burn. He's standing with his feet in the water and it feels like Heaven. Beside him stands Abby in a yellow halter top bikini-he's not sure if he's seen it around their flat or if it's out of some other fantasy. Regardless, she looks magnificent.

"See you in the morning," she whispers through the space between them.

Something screams in the distance and he wants to pull her to him, comfort her, even though he's really the one that needs the comforting.

"I hope."

* * *

That night he dreams of Cutter.

It's not so unusual, Connor has dreamed of Cutter on and off ever since his death. Mostly he dreams of sitting there in the fire with Cutter, watching the only man who ever believed in him die. Watching the only father figure he ever had die.

This dream is different.

Cutter is on his beach with him.

"Hey," Connor says softly. That's how he always starts these dreams, because he's never really sure what to say when he dreams of the dead man.

Cutter smiles. He's looking out to the ocean.

"This is quite a mess you've gotten yourself into," the professor says and even if it is a dream, his voice sounds so real and Connor can't help but smile because it's Cutter.

"Yeah. I guess so. I don't know-" Connor's voice hitched suddenly. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one."

Cutter nods. "You'll find a way."

"I'm not sure," Connor whispers. "I'm hurt Cutter, I could barely keep Abby safe, what if I fail, what if she-"

A small smile crosses Cutter's face, but he keeps his eyes on the horizon. "You will keep Abby safe, Connor, because you want to so badly. Because she is that important to you. And you will find a way out of here, out of this, because you are a genius, Connor Temple."

Connor laughs, darkly. "I don't feel like one, Professor."

Cutter tears his eyes from the horizon and turns to face the younger man. He grips the young man tightly on both shoulders and forces him to look him in the eyes.

"Connor, you solved the mystery of the artifact. You created a machine that tracks the anomalies and another that locks them. You-"

"Fell out of a tree and almost became raptor bait."

Cutter smiles, that little half smile that Connor misses. "You will find a way out of this. I know it."

Connor tries to smile.

"And Abby. Give Abby some time. She'll come around."

Connor looks up to thank the Professor, but he's gone with a whisper of something like feathers and sighs and he finds himself alone on his beach again.

* * *

The world tilts on it's side and he's home again, not Abby's home, not the dorm, but home. Home where he grew up. Home where his father died and his mother drank herself into oblivion.

_Home is where the heart is, _he thinks and then laughs because his heart hasn't been here in ages.

He sees his mother sitting on the couch with a bottle of rum and she's crying and his heart sinks.

"Mom," he whispers but she doesn't hear and he's falling from that damn tree again and the ground rushes up to meet him and somewhere he can hear Abby screaming.

* * *

Connor never believed in God. He never could believe in some omnipotent being that watched over them all. Watched over them but wouldn't help them. Wouldn't save them. He always had trouble believing that someone had created all of them, not that they had evolved. Maybe he was too science minded, but that was the truth.

But when he fell from the tree, he wondered vaguely if he was going to die. He'd wondered it a hundred times now-face to face with Giganotosaurus, watching as a deadly fungus creep towards him as the temperature dropped, on the wrong end of a sword protecting Abby's dinosaur-but for some reason, falling through the air, the thought hit him again.

He wouldn't mind dying, except that it meant that he would never see Abby again. He didn't believe in God, he didn't believe in Heaven or Hell, but that didn't mean that it wasn't possible that they did exist. He also hadn't believed that dinosaurs could walk the modern day Earth or that Abby would ever kiss him, but both of those things had already happened. Who knew what was possible?

* * *

"Just stay with me," Cutter whispered.

And he stayed.

* * *

He's on his beach again, with Abby. She isn't wearing her bikini anymore, but she still looks beautiful. Short skirt, black leggings, tank top, combat boots. His Abby.

They're standing, facing the ocean. He sneaks a glance at her. She's smiling against the sunshine, smiling like he hasn't seen her smile in years.

"I love you," Abby whispers.

It's just a dream.

He smiles.

"I love you too," he whispers back.


End file.
